Episode 309

Fitness Habits to Train for Life (feat. Emily Nichols)

Published on: 2nd July, 2025

When it comes to your fitness routine, what are you training for? If you’re like most of us, not a marathon or a bodybuilding competition. And yet, most trainers and fitness influencers advise us to train like we are! What if instead, we train for life?! Those fitness habits look pretty different…and they’re A LOT easier to maintain. 

In this episode of Salad with a Side of Fries, host Jenn Trepeck welcomes Emily Nichols, a personal trainer and host of Habit Hack Your Health, to explore the art of forming lasting fitness habits. Emily shares her expertise on creating keystone habits, mastering functional movement, and embracing a habit loop of cue, routine, and reward to foster lasting lifestyle changes. From rejecting diet culture to prioritizing enjoyable workouts, this conversation offers practical strategies to move your body, fuel your soul, and be your best self.

The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast is hosted by Jenn Trepeck, who discusses wellness and weight loss in real life, clearing up myths, misinformation, and bad science surrounding our nutrition knowledge and the food industry. Let’s dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store.

IN THIS EPISODE: 

  • (00:00) Emily defines habits as ingrained actions that require minimal decision-making
  • (04:56) Emily’s journey from stress and unhealthy habits to embracing her fitness journey
  • (09:34) Habits are reframed as lifestyle choices that reduce decision fatigue
  • (11:20) Keystone habits are introduced as foundational actions that inspire other healthy behaviors
  • (14:20) Training for life is defined as sustainable movement and nutrition practices, not tied to restrictive goals
  • (21:11) Forming habits takes about 90 days, Emily challenges the notion of intense workouts
  • (27:00) Shifting away from diet culture, emphasizes strength training for body composition 
  • (30:54) Habit loops (cue, routine, reward) are explained, with tangible or intangible rewards 

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  • Adopt keystone habits that inspire other healthy behaviors, such as improved nutrition and sleep, to create a sustainable lifestyle foundation.
  • Build sustainable fitness habits using cues (e.g., calendar reminders, Post-it notes), routines, and rewards, taking small, intentional steps to reduce decision fatigue and foster long-term consistency, ultimately creating lasting lifestyle changes within approximately 90 days.
  • Embrace functional movements and sustainable nutrition, prioritizing enjoyable fitness habits tied to personal identity and joy over diet culture and extreme workouts, to support everyday activities and promote lasting health, not just scale numbers.

QUOTES:        

(00:00) "Habits for me mean less decisions. Habits are part of my lifestyle." - Emily Nichols

(01:05) "If your plan has you opting out of life, it's not your plan for life." - Jenn Trepeck

(08:55) "The thing I hear all the time is, well, I just need to do it. And I'm like. Yes. But, that doesn't get us there. The other piece of this is habits."  - Jenn Trepeck

(23:17) "Because the other thing thats in our heads is I have to kill myself in a workout." - Jenn Trepeck

(30:38) "The reward part of all of this... people often forget." - Jenn Trepeck

RESOURCES:

Become A Member of Salad with a Side of Fries

Jenn’s Free Menu Plan

A Salad With a Side of Fries

A Salad With A Side Of Fries Merch

A Salad With a Side of Fries Instagram

GUEST RESOURCES:

Emily | Habit & Fitness Coach💕 (@emilynichols22) • Instagram photos and videos

Emily Nichols Website

Emily Nichols - Facebook.com/groups/selftransformedpodcast

Emily Nichols, Habit Hack Your Health - YouTube

Habit Hacking Your Willpower with Jenn Trepeck

GUEST BIOGRAPHY:

Emily Nichols is the host of Habit Hack Your Health—a top-ranked podcast that helps working moms habit hack their health in less time, guilt-free.

From her struggles and working with 100s of moms as a personal trainer since 2016, Emily found that women need a more habit-based approach to their wellness for it to be sustainable.  No more diets or quick fixes, but a system that allows you to train for life instead.

Emily is now on a mission to redefine what health truly means and equip you with the simple habit hacks you need to consistently take care of your health and show up as the best version of yourself from the inside out.

Emily is also a wife, #boymom to two boys, a Certified Personal Trainer, an Orangetheory Coach, a Yoga & Meditation Instructor, a Behavior Change Specialist, and a Taco Tuesday Enthusiast.

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About the Podcast

Salad With a Side of Fries Nutrition, Wellness & Weight Loss
What to eat and when to cheat! Let's decipher between all the “diets” out there. You know what to do but it itsn't working. In fact, your diet could be making you fatter.

Ever wondered if cryo-freezing your fat cells would really work? Should you try acupuncture? A hypnotist? If you do, how do you know if someone’s good?

Salad with a Side of Fries is the podcast that will answer all these questions and more! Talking wellness and weight loss for real life, because most of us are going to drink, eat out, skip the grocery store and who wants a life without fries or dessert?! Host Jenn Trepeck’s expertise as an optimal health coach, in practice for over a decade, along with experts in various modalities will clear up the myths, mis-information, bad science and marketing to reveal the truth of HOW TO EAT and HOW TO CHEAT!*



*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This podcast, its content and guests are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

About your host

Profile picture for Jennifer Trepeck

Jennifer Trepeck

“My passion for nutrition and helping others stems from “kicking my food issues” with my own weight management saga.” ~ Jenn

I believe that the greatest accountability is paying it forward! That’s why I teach the nutrition education we are all supposed to know but no one ever taught us, along with the science behind food, fitness, and health.

After I graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, I founded Better Life Now LLC while working full-time in hedge funds. In 2019, I took my practice from side-hustle to full-time self-employment and launched my podcast, Salad With a Side of Fries. On the show, we offer science-based tips and tricks for how to achieve wellness and weight loss for real life – because who wants a life without fries or dessert?!

Topics we tackle on the podcast include debunking fad diets, food myths, misinformation in marketing, bad science, and general nutrition. I encourage guests whose expertise is different from my own focus on weight management to bring their unique, fact-based perspectives to talk about subjects they are educated in and passionate about.

Due to my decade-long experience of working with clients, I have gained insight into the health and food industry and the how-tos of building a business.

Some specific health and wellness topics I can speak to include debunking fad diets, exposing the BS we are fed by the food and diet industry, how the people around us can positively and negatively impact our health journey, and shifting mindsets in order to overcome inappropriate barometers of success to instead achieve happy, healthy, and meaningful change.

On the subject of business, I can help you by teaching my critical pieces every entrepreneur should know, how to make your side-hustle into your full-time job, ways to sustainably achieve success without burning out, contemporary networking, and how to prioritize wellness while pursuing your projects.

When I find some free time, I’m typically working out at Physique57, discovering hidden gem restaurants in NYC, or traveling to spend time with friends and family.

I’d love to have an in-depth conversation with you, whether it’s leveling up in business or debunking food myths!